Current business practice requires that all tech savvy and easy to work with companies use fax, scan, and print machines. Good record keeping is essential for a smooth functioning and lucrative company, thus a fast working printer is logically a good investment. There are various kinds of printers from inkjets to laser printers. It is common that laser printers are chosen for their fast material output.

The science of a laser printer lies in photoconductivity and the electrostatic attraction that makes the dry ink inside of a toner cartridge stick to paper. To begin the imprinting process, a laser projects part of the image of the material to be printed onto a mechanical piece, called a drum, that has been coated with chemical or organic semiconductors. The laser's light takes away atomic charge from the areas that have been exposed to light through the photoconductivity phenomenon. Dry ink called 'toner' is then left to attach only to the areas of the previously exposed 'drum' which are still electrically charged.

Toner ink is made out of a collection of various particles. Toners used only powdered carbon when they were first invented. To make the quality of the printed material more pleasing toner producers began to mix plastics, called polymers, in with the carbon powders. Polymer, that is, plastics, waxes, resins of various sorts, and carbon might all be found in different selections of today's printer toner cartridges.

Better quality toners have smaller particles that create more collected and pleasing prints. Modern cartridge produces are even trying to 'grow' new and smaller materials to fill their toners with.

These materials stick to the areas that have not had the laser shined on them through a naturally occurring charge within the particles. For the powdered 'ink' to stick to the desired piece of paper, heat is applied within the printer.

The original messy and time consuming process of filling new dry powder into empty toner cartridges was common in the 1980's but has since waned in use and popularity. Modern toners are replaced whole, with their containers. The environment takes a toll when so much plastic, both in the ink and of the container, is deposited into the earth. Some toners must even have their drum replaced with the ink cartridges. It is lucky that society is moving away from such practices. The future of toner ink lies is making this product more sustainable for the environment.